WIFE ABUSE

This is a huge problem in Africa. It is considered abnormal not to beat your wife. In some tribes, when a girl/woman is being prepared for marriage, her (female) counselor will tell her that when her husband beats her he is showing he loves her. Instruction is given on how to goad him if he isn’t “showing he loves her” so he will get angry enough to beat her.

When it happens one also is never supposed to talk about it. A woman can walk about with bruises and obvious damage but neither she nor her friends and neighbors are supposed to mention it. It took a lot of probing of my African colleagues on my part to elicit enough information to come up with a plausible scenario where Mother would interfere to help by taking Mama Linda to the clinic.

The intention of these dramas is not to fully cover the topic, but to get discussion started and to base that discussion on God’s Word.